When installing a Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication (DECT) network with multiple cells (also called nodes) in order to provide wireless communication data coverage in a large area, it can be done using Wireless Relay Stations (WRS) cells, i.e. repeaters, or Radio Fixed Part cells, i.e. base stations. WRS cells are wirelessly connected to a base station which is then connected to receive and transmit external communication, while RFP cells are connected via a backbone wired network. In a DECT network it is necessary to time-synchronize such cells in order to allow the mobile terminals to roam and handover between the cells. It is also desirable to synchronize the cells in order to achieve higher system capacity.
For WRS cells it is necessary to do over-air-synchronization, and for RFP cells it is desirable to do over-air-synchronization in order to avoid special synchronization cabling in the backbone network. To form an over-air synchronized network, it is necessary to configure all the cells to build a suitable network topology. For WRS cells the synchronization path is the same as the duplex communication path back to the base station, which is an RFP cell with connectivity to a backbone network. Synchronization information from a master cell, e.g. a timing reference base station, can be relayed via cell paths including a multiple cells and geographically distributed in a star or chain pattern. Each cell in the network requires information of which of the other cells in the network to consider as a reference cell, i.e. which cell to synchronize to. In many cases several other cells are candidates as reference cells, and thus the most optimal one must be chosen for obtaining the best possible performance of the network.
For a large system with many cells it can be a cumbersome manual process to configure network topology and it has to be done by skilled personal using dedicated tools. All cells need to be supplied with information on which cell to consider as reference cell with respect to synchronization, and this process requires typically a substantial amount of consideration and measurements in order to configure the network for a reliable function with reliable synchronization between cells. If the network topology has to be changed, it also requires manual operation by skilled personal.
For applications where the network of cells are geographically fixed, a manual configuration may be acceptable. However, in many applications it is a problem that a complex manual re-configuration is required, in case some of the cells are physically moved, or in case the wireless transmission properties are changed between some of the cells of the network.